Eric Brod
Senior Writer
The Bison have received more competition in the Patriot League with the arrival of Loyola (Md.) into the league beginning at the start of the 2013-2014 academic year. With the additions of the Greyhounds and Boston University, the Patriot League will have 10 members beginning in August of next year.
The Greyhounds will be Patriot League participants in 17 sports, including men’s and women’s basketball, men’s and women’s cross country, men’s and women’s soccer and men’s and women’s lacrosse. The Greyhounds will bring further prestige to Patriot League, as they had one of the most successful athletic years in school history. The most prominent story was their men’s lacrosse team capturing the NCAA championship. However, that was far from the only success story for the school. Along with the men, the women’s lacrosse team made it to the quarterfinals of the NCAA tournament, the men’s basketball team made it the NCAA tournament and the men’s golf team earned a spot in the NCAA regional tournament.
The Patriot League, which formed as an all-sport conference in 1990, now has two new members set to join for the first time since American University joined the league in 2001.
In keeping with the Patriot League mission of excelling in both academics and athletics, the Greyhounds reported 100 percent graduation success rates for 11 of its 14 sports, according to the NCAA report released in October 2011.
The addition of Loyola shows that the Patriot League is moving towards new territory in relation to its status in the NCAA. This is certainly an exciting time for Patriot League athletics.